author
Ellsworth Huntington
1876–1947
An early 20th-century American geographer and explorer, he became widely known for linking climate and human history in bold, often controversial ways. His travels in the Middle East and Central Asia helped shape a long career at Yale and a large body of popular and scholarly writing.
2 Audiobooks
The Red Man's Continent: A Chronicle of Aboriginal America
by Ellsworth Huntington
Climatic Changes: Their Nature and Causes
by Ellsworth Huntington, Stephen Sargent Visher
About the author
Born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1876, Ellsworth Huntington studied at Beloit College and later earned advanced degrees from Harvard and Yale. Early in his career he taught at Euphrates College in Harput, in the Ottoman Empire, and those years sparked the interest in travel, landscape, and climate that would define much of his work.
Huntington went on expeditions in Central Asia and nearby regions, then joined Yale, where he taught geography and wrote extensively. He became especially well known for arguing that climate strongly influenced the rise and decline of civilizations, as well as patterns of economic life. His books reached a wide audience, and he also served in leadership roles in major scholarly organizations, including the Ecological Society of America and the Association of American Geographers.
Today, he is remembered both for his energy as an explorer and for ideas that stirred lasting debate. Some of his work helped popularize geographic thinking for general readers, while other parts of it are now viewed critically for their strong environmental determinism and related racial theories. He died in 1947.